Western Fires Push Smoke East Amid Drought

The National Interagency Fire Center reports there are more than 26,000 firefighters and emergency personnel on the front lines battling the blazes.

A raging wildfire in northern Minnesota threatened houses and cabins in the popular tourist area of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Several fires burning in the forest say the lightning-ignited fires have burned more than 30 square miles. Patrick Prochaska watched one of the wildfires burn towards his cabin in the Wilderness — the fire scorching the trees surrounding his home. Prochaska says he doesn't know if the cabin survived and will not until he's allowed back in the evacuation zone. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports there are 92 large fires burning across the U.S. The fires have scorched millions of acres of land in the west including large amounts of land in Montana, Idaho, Washington state, Oregon and California.